The meeting of two teams in crisis according to the media could not
have come at the worse time for one of them. With Spurs
already qualified, the only thing remaining for them in the last two
group games is to try and finish top of the group. Tottenham
are supposedly have dropped Danny Rose for Saturday's meeting with
Arsenal, but he wasn't fit and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was left
out of his side's Bundesliga match with Stuttgart on Friday for
disciplinary reasons. With a record in their home league this
season of five of their latest games without a win, people are
looking at manager Peter Bosz, who took over in the summer from
Thomas Tuchel. He has been hit by injuries to his squad, but
the fifth position is a drop from Borussia's recent league placing.

There are some big name sin the squad, such as Aubameyang, Gotze,
Schurrle, Castro, Bartra, Pulisic and Kagawa, with some transfer
activity in the summer designed to beef up the squad for challenges
on three fronts, but it hasn't turned out like that. Their
poor form in this group in the Champions League has left them hoping
for Real to lose to APOEL to give the German side the chance to
catch up with Madrid. They have fallen quite a long way since
last season, with our 3-1 win at Wembley turning the tables on
Dortmund for the Europa League defeat of 2015-16.

Quite what is going on at
Dortmund is anyone's guess. Bosz's tactics sees his side play
high up the pitch, but they do not close down the opposition to make
the high line defensively sound, but the defence and the goalkeeper
Burki do not instil belief in keeping goals out at the other end.

The strength in the team is
going forward and they showed in spells in the Wembley match that
they are capable of pinning teams back with good possession and
incisive passing. While Spurs are not at the top of their game
recently, they could find it a more difficult proposition as a lot
of their players now have something to play for and the manager is
clinging to the straws of a win to try and keep himself in a job.

A draw won't be the worst
result for Spurs and we have WBA on Saturday to think about too, so
they might settle for a point, but could snatch it if Borussia try
to force the issue, leaving gaps for us to hit them on the break.

PREDICTION

Borussia Dortmund
1 Tottenham
Hotspur 1

BORUSSIA
DORTMUND TEAM NEWS :
Marco Reus will miss the game through injury.

Despite going a goal behind,
Spurs put in a really good game, which improved as it went on, to
win the match and in the process, win the group with one game left
to play. The team unit functioned very well tonight and
individuals might not have been quite at the top of their game, but
still made important contributions to the 2-1 victory over Borussia
Dortmund.

Alli played an early ball in
the second minute for Son to run onto but Zagadou blocked his shot
for a corner, which Spurs managed to mess up and Dortmund could
clear it easily. A similar long ball saw Rose win it in the air and
pick up the loose ball to win another corner. Winks played it in and
it flew through the six yard box with no Spurs man taking a chance
to get on the end of it.

Dortmund began playing the ball around slickly, but Spurs were also
finding space to pick out passes, although neither side was hurting
the other at this stage of the game. The twelfth minute saw the
first shot on target, as the home team worked the ball on the edge
of the box, ending with Yarmolenko hitting a weak shot straight at
Lloris, who fielded the ball easily. The Ukrainian did better when
he chipped the ball over the Spurs defence for Aubameyang, but he
poked it past Lloris, but the keeper had rushed out and forced the
Gabon striker to miss.

Aurier nearly picked out a cross to Kane, but Zagadou slid in to
intercept, then Kane opened up the pitch with a ball out to the
right for Aurier to come in and drive a low ball in, but Son was too
far ahead of the near post to do much with it. Serge was soon back
defending with a good sliding tackle that gave away a corner, which
had to be headed out from in front of goal after it had been flicked
on at the near post. Aurier was having a good game and one early
cross caused a defender to chest the ball behind. When the corner
came back in, Vertonghen picked out Son in the box, but he couldnít
get a good contact on it and then he was offside when Spurs
recovered the ball and played it forward for him.

Dortmund worked the ball through the Spurs half, with Yarmolenko
dragging the ball behind him to put Aubameyang in on goal and from
the right of centre, he slipped it past Lloris to the keeperís right
from eight yards out. It was a well worked goal, but Tottenham
played their way back into the game forcing a couple of corners but
couldnít make anything from them. There was a moment when Dier slid
in on Aubameyang in the box to stop him getting a shot away and as
Sanchez ran past the Dortmund man, he caught a swing of the scorerís
hand on the back of his head. You canít help but think that if it
had been Dele, there would have been a different outcome other than
just a free-kick.

Eriksen tried a shot after a run in from the right, but he dragged
it and there was no power in it, he was a bit more unlucky when Rose
picked out Christian in the centre of the area and his shot was
straight at Burki. Alli tried to head the rebound in, but it dropped
for Kane, whose shot was blocked. From the corner, Dier met it with
his head and the keeper made a good stretch to palm the ball out
with what look like boxing gloves, just wide enough for Kane and Son
not to be able to turn it in.

So, at half time, Spurs were a goal behind, but had a few chances to
show that the home team might be fragile if we could break through.
And Spurs started sharply in the second half, with Rose winning the
ball off Toljan and passing to Dele. He squared it to Kane on the
edge of the box, who turned Bartra, then squared up Zagadou before
drilling a low shot past Burkiís right hand to level the score, just
a couple of minutes into the second half.

Rose was back in defensive action to cut out a dangerous ball from
Weigl, but it was at the other end that he was next involved,
running over the ball for Eriksen to swing in a free-kick which
pole-axed the Ukrainian Yarmolenko. A long pass forward was chased
by Dele and he just stopped it going out for a goal kick, conceding
a throw in but it looked like he was running in treacle. Maybe being
rushed back for the Arsenal game had taken more out of him than Poch
might have thought.

Harry then paid it into the path of Dele for a shot that he dragged
wide left of the Dortmund goal. Dele then gave away a free kick that
Guerreiro put into the box and Dier did very well to nod the ball
out under pressure. Spurs were looking forward and Eriksen almost
picked out Kane, but Bartra beat him to it before passing straight
to Dele. He ran at the box and tried to slip the ball into Son, but
he was offside.

In trying to play the ball out of defence, Dortmund were conceding
possession. A great passing move put Rose in on the right but his
final ball in towards Son didnít allow him to have a shot. But Danny
won a corner off Gotze shortly after and when it came in, the ball
was taken by Burki and Gotze then lost the ball, won the ball and
then lost it again, as the play got a little bit messy. But
Tottenham were in the ascendancy, so when Dele tormented Gotze and
Bartra, then ran away from the latter, after a fortuitous bounce, he
pulled the ball back to Son fifteen yards out. H took aim and
shot into the top of the net out of Burkiís reach to put Tottenham
ahead. Having taken one touch, he put the ball into the keeperís top
left hand corner. It wasnít an easy finish, but Sonny made it look
easy and Dele did well to use his body to get it between Bartra and
the ball to stop the Spaniard having the opportunity to try and
tackle him in the box. With fifteen minutes left, it was a
good time for Spurs to score.

It was nearly three when Tottenham broke and Son played the ball
left to Rose and he stood up a cross to the far post, where Eriksen
came in to win an untypical header, but put it a couple of feet
wide, when he should have at least tested the keeper.

Yarmolenko got Aubameyang in on the right wing and his cross was
looking for Castro at the far post, but Eric Dier intercepted it and
coolly cleared the ball. Guerreiro had a good chance when Aurier got
under a long cross from their right but the volley was sliced
horribly wide. After Dier had blocked a shot from Aubameyang, Son
played a ball through to Llorente to run onto. He had run thirty
yards and then took a heavy touch that took the ball through to
Burki, who then had to be stretchered off, although it is hard to
see what Fernando had done to result in this.

A late break on the left saw Spurs take on Dortmund at will and
Toljan crudely blocked Rose for a yellow card. The free-kick allowed
them to play out the remaining last few moments in the corner at the
Dortmund end to seal a win that showed another example of their
progression from two years ago and how they have adapted to
Champions League football. Spurs fans sang out as the home sections
emptied quickly and quietly. The way Spurs came out and bossed the
second half showed how mature they can perform now. Dortmundís
players looked like a group lacking confidence, even though they
took the lead, but the early goal in the second half broke any
spirit there might have been in the German team.

Spurs played a controlled game, without getting flustered when they
went a goal behind, handing Pochettinohis 100th win in charge
of Spurs in 184 matches. He will be happy with the performance
and the result it has achieved, but will be looking beyond the APOEL
match to the knock-out stages, but in between he can concentrate on
the Premier League.

Keith
Mandemant

PUB
FACT*

Dortmund were from the
Borussia section of Dortmund and when they met the Berussia club in
a local derby, they were so impressed with them they merged, taking
their badge initials from the TV coverage's shorthand for the game
as BvB Dortmund.

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What you
thought

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Group H Table

P

W

D

L

F

A

Pts

GD

1

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR

5

4

1

0

12

4

13

+8

2

Real Madrid

5

3

1

1

14

5

10

+9

3

Borussia Dortmund

5

0

2

3

5

10

2

-5

4

APOEL

5

0

2

3

2

14

2

-12

Position before match :
1st
Position after this round of matches : 1st

* Pub facts may not actually be true, but after a
few pints everyone might think so.